


Armed and Maternal

by chicafrom3



Category: Psych
Genre: Authority Figures, Character Study, Community: 1character, Family, Gen, Identity, Motherhood, Police
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-21
Updated: 2006-09-21
Packaged: 2017-10-18 03:26:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/184476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicafrom3/pseuds/chicafrom3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Son, you don't want to do that, because I am an armed police officer, not the helpless prey you think I am.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Armed and Maternal

#01 – Snow  
Karen Vick met her eventual husband in Vermont on a skiing trip; he sprained his ankle, she got bogged down in paperwork, and while everyone else was on the slopes they sat in the lodge; he handed her pencils and papers and she made him hot cocoa.

#02 – Child  
She is tiny and perfect and beautiful and at that moment, holding this little person in her arms, Karen cannot imagine ever _not_ having been a mother.

#03 – Brick  
Vick hit the Santa Barbara Police Department like a ton of bricks, a no-nonsense, tough hurricane, where everyone had expected the pregnant woman to be ineffectual.

#04 – Judgment  
She passed judgment on people every day, but couldn't quite decide one way or the other on Shawn Spencer.

#05 – Powder  
There is a collection of teddy bears, paper flowers, and Pixie Sticks waiting next to her bed when she wakes up; the attached card says "Love to the Chief from the guys at Psych!"

#06 – Grim  
Some of the officers call her "grim" and "cold"; she doesn't care, because she gets results and she knows they respect her.

#07 – Trap  
"Chief, it's Shawn, you're walking into a trap—" and she hangs up without answering, already shouting for everybody to back off, because he might be lying to her but he's yet to be wrong.

#08 – Star  
Stretched out in bed with a case report, Karen stopped to pull a yellow legal pad off the nightstand and scribble another name onto the list of possibilities: _Stella_.

#09 – Possession  
"Okay, do you really have to possess the corpse's ghost in order to tell us who the killer is?" she asked irritably.

#10 – Bandage  
She wrapped Detective Lassiter's ankle up tightly, ignoring his complaints that he was fine, really.

#11 – Pearl  
Karen wears a pearl instead of a diamond, because a diamond may be "forever" but a pearl is sincere.

#12 – Glass  
"You're saying I should feel better because all the glass in the station is bulletproof, but why would the glass be bulletproof if no one thought it was likely someone was going to start shooting at it?"

#13 – Classified  
Vick slid the folder across the desk to Burton Guster and said, "You understand, I didn't give this to you, we never talked, and I have no idea how you managed to get your hands on a classified case file?"

#14 – Buttons  
She likes button-down shirts best, because they afford her the most movement, the most space, and the most places to hide a gun.

#15 – Closet  
Of course she knew Carlton and Lucinda were sleeping together, they were lousy at hiding it.

#16 – Ash  
When she moved into her office, supplanting the old police chief, the first thing she got rid of was the ashtrays; the first thing she brought in was her pregnancy chair.

#17 – Definition  
She defines herself as a strong, able police officer; "woman", "mother", and "wife" all come much further down the list.

#18 – Staircase  
"Karen Vick, you have faced down armed madmen, this shouldn't even slow you down," she told herself, and looked apprehensively at the steep staircase, once again annoyed by her impaired mobility.

#19 – Nail  
It was a group charity project, most of the SBPD turning out to help with the construction; Spencer and Guster showed up as spectators, and cheered Vick loudly as she swung the hammer, both at the nails and threateningly in their direction.

#20 – Prey  
"Son, you don't want to do that, because I am an armed police officer, not the helpless prey you think I am."

#21 – Backwards  
Karen admired Henry Spencer greatly; he did everything backwards, but he did everything right.

#22 – Trouble  
The day she saw Henry Spencer's son walk into her department she knew he was trouble.

#23 – Little  
Maybe it wasn't the best day of her life, but when she saw the tiny blob on the ultrasound…yeah, it ranked right up there.

#24 – Collar  
Her first collar was a twenty-five-year old cocaine dealer who'd killed a client who owed him money; Det. Henry Spencer slapped her on the back and told her she'd done good, and she knew this was where her life belonged.

#25 – Circle  
Shawn draws a series of circles and lines on the pad in quick succession and hands it to her proudly; when she asks what the hell it's supposed to mean, he looks crestfallen and says, "It's balloons, for your little girl."

#26 – Hands  
His hands were the first part of him that she really fell in love with; strong, graceful hands, hands that don't need to push her down, hands that she doesn't need to pull her up.

#27 – Freedom  
"How do you define freedom?" Shawn asked, his feet resting on her desk; Karen defined freedom as a kiss from her husband; Vick said, "Get out of my office, Spencer."

#28 – Last  
This is the _last_ damn time she lets Spencer and Lassiter go at it in her office.

#29 – Scab  
She scratched absently at the scab on her knee, then had to hide her glee at actually being able to reach her knees again.

#30 – Crown  
On her birthday, Gus and Shawn marched into her office with a pound of confetti, some streamers, a cake, and a flimsy cardboard crown; she managed to keep from pulling her sidearm on them, mostly because O'Hara looked excited by it and Lassiter looked pissed.

#31 – Time  
Karen's watch broke at exactly 5:13, which Shawn proudly proclaimed to be a sign that he was needed on the Kerley murder case.

#32 – Rice  
They didn't throw rice at her wedding because her groom had read that it was dangerous for birds; they threw flower petals instead, but she didn't notice because she was too busy kissing him.

#33 – Worn  
"Spencer, you are wearing on my last damn nerve."

#34 – Paint  
McNabb's apartment smells of fresh paint and Karen wrinkles her nose but otherwise ignores it, because there are things to do.

#35 – Ache  
Giving birth freaking _hurts_ and she is going to crush Lassiter's hand if need be, and whose bright idea was this, anyway?

#36 – Cherry  
When Karen gets a sundae, she always sets aside the cherry and saves it to eat last; without fail, everyone who watches her eat a sundae makes fun of her for this, until they notice her glare.

#37 – Library  
The library smells musty and old and cold and her hand grips the gun tighter as she slips through the stacks, looking for her perp.

#38 – Win  
When a criminal dies in the showdown, that's not a win, it's a necessary evil.

#39 – Loss  
"Chief, please don't get angry, it's bad for your health, but I lost your birthing ball."

#40 – Fold  
She can do anything, except fold laundry; it annoys and amuses her husband to no end, but she simply can't fold laundry without getting it all wrinkled and creased.

#41 – Music  
She sings snatches of old rock songs to the baby for lullabies, because tradition has never really suited her anyway.

#42 – Bell  
"Sound the alarm, the Interim Chief is mad today!" Shawn cried gleefully through the station, and Vick rubbed the bridge of her nose and tried counting to ten.

#43 – Sleep  
She sleeps a little harder than normal, but to be fair she did just push eleven pounds of limbs and head out of her body.

#44 – Contact  
"I'll tell you what, Carlton, if Spencer does anything that actually breaks any laws, you give me a call, all right?"

#45 – Electricity  
It still feels like electricity every time she brushes her hand against her husband's.

#46 – Milk  
"I know who killed Ronnie Michaels, Chief, and also your husband called and asked me to tell you that you're out of milk, would you please pick some up on the way home?"

#47 – Wild  
Karen could be wild when she wanted to be, and the people who counted knew that.

#48 – Expectation  
There are certain expectations of a new police chief in an area like Santa Barbara, and Karen Vick managed to break every one of them on her first day.

#49 – Mechanism  
"How the hell did he manage to rig up that thing?"

#50 – Finale  
Interim Police Chief Karen Vick stood in a hospital hallway, barefoot and in a cheap hospital gown, surrounded by two of her detectives and two guys from a supposed psychic detective agency, peering through a glass window as the tiny infant who had her eyes and her nose, and her life felt complete.


End file.
